Benson is DirecTV's Southwest Diversity Facility, the backup for its Southwest Uplink Facility in Tucson, about 50 km to the west. The building houses broadcast and network equipment, and four large dishes in the fenced yard transmit to DirecTV's Ka-band satellites. Standby generators back up the utility feed.
The site stays on standby most of the time. When heavy rain weakens the Tucson uplink past a set threshold, Tucson stops transmitting and Benson carries the signal until the storm passes. Rain rarely hits both sites at once at full strength, so the pair keeps DirecTV's southwest uplink on the air.
DirecTV is a privately held pay-TV company owned by the private equity firm TPG, which took full ownership in July 2025. The company is headquartered in El Segundo, California, and delivers television by satellite and by streaming.
Its satellite service depends on a fleet of geostationary satellites. A network of broadcast uplink facilities feeds them, and each uplink pairs with a backup site that takes over during heavy rain.
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